To avoid being whistled for a major foul and sent to the penalty box, please read the rules.

While some of what appears below is certainly done with tongue firmly planted in cheek, we do want people to "play fair" and have an equal opportunity to win.

We hope you enjoy the contests.

1. Registration permits you to enter both of the picking contests and all of the top 20 contests. You may enter an installment of a contest only once per e-mail address and username. (Multiple entries should not get through, but if they do the first one will be used.) Your e-mail address(es) must be valid during and at the end of the contest, and returned e-mail messages could result in disqualification and/or visits from a very bad Elvis impersonator. If multiple people have a single home e-mail address and both wish to enter, one will need to obtain and use a different e-mail address.

2. You may register more than once, but a different username and e-mail address must be provided. There's only small advantage in creating "multiple personalities," but feel to give it a shot if you like.

3. LaxPower assumes no responsibility for entries that do not reach us regardless of the reason, for incorrectly entered e-mail addresses, for the proper operation of its contest forms, for any other difficulties a user may experience in the process of participating, for viruses that eat your entries, or for blizzards, drought, disease, or pestilence that may afflict you or the region in which you live.

4a. Picking Contests: The overall winners will be the people (one or more for each contest) who have entered 8 or more installments and who have the highest percentage of correct picks. If you enter all 10 weeks, your lowest score (on a percentage basis - there are occasionally fewer than 10 usable games because of cancellations) will be dropped. Weekly winners will be determined the same way, but the number of points in games picked correctly will be used as a tie-breaker, with the final tie-breaker being the closest estimate of total goals scored in the games played. Should a game not be played on the weekend when it is scheduled, it will not be counted in the results even if it should be made up later.

4b. Top 20 Contests: The winners for these six contests will be determined by comparing your enter vs. the final regular season poll (the one right after tournament selections are made). If a team you rank IS NOT ranked in the poll, you get 0 points. If a team you rank IS ranked in the poll, you receive 41 - PR - |PR - YR| points, where PR is the poll rank, YR is your rank, and the pipes mean to take the absolute value of their difference (i.e., ignore the sign). So, for example, if you ranked Syracuse #3, and the Orange were ranked #8 in the final poll, you would earn 41 - 8 - |8 - 3| = 41 - 13 = 28 points.

5. Picking contest installments of the contests will generally be posted for about five days. The deadline for submitting entries for each installment (generally 6:00 p.m. ET on Fridays) will be posted. Top 20 contest entries must be received by 6:00 pm ET on March 1 for the "preseason" version of the contest and April 1 for the "midseason" version of the contest. Entries received after any deadline has passed will be discarded, and no notification will be provided.

6. Collaboration is permissible, but you'll have a little more ego invested if the picks are your own, which should make the contests more interesting.

7. It is not permitted to gain, or to attempt to gain, access to the contest entry database (by whatever means) for review or distribution of this information. Simply put, any action that might, in light of the spirit of these rules, constitute cheating is not allowed.

8. Contestants who, in the opinion of LaxPower, are violating any of the contest rules will be disqualified and have silent aspersions cast upon their names.

9. Prizes? Mostly just the admiration and respect of your peers and some fun along the way. But we may have LaxPower logo sweatshirts for each of the winners.